I agree with the OP.
If someone would normally refrain from conversing with the opposite gender, here should be no different.
I may not know that someone is indeed what they claim to be, but the fact remains that for whatever reason, rational or not, I assume that the posters are generally not lying about these details. And I do not believe I am the only one. That is why I think the (rhetorical) point that a poster might be a turtle or a horse is stupid.
The fact remains that I believe that to a certain extent I “know” some posters here. I might be fooling myself, but that’s how I feel. And do not tell me no one else has this feeling.
Someone who, on principle, normally refrains from talking to someone of the opposite gender has an inhibition. “Knowing” a person of the opposite gender, even via this medium, lowers that inhibition a little bit. It is a violation of such a person’s principles.